Wanaque Borough
Municipality · Passaic County
59 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Wanaque Borough, reporting a median pensionable salary of $67,492.
Wanaque Borough is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Passaic County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Passaic County has 20 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in total, including this one.
About municipalities in New Jersey
New Jersey has 564 municipalities, and each one decides for itself whether to operate under Title 11A. A municipality that adopts civil service hires and promotes employees through competitive exams administered by the state; one that hasn't sets its own local hiring rules instead.
Wanaque Borough Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 20 civil service jurisdictions in Passaic County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Wanaque Borough
59 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Wanaque Borough. That is a count of active memberships reported by the employer, not a payroll headcount: anyone not enrolled in one of these funds does not appear in this data at all, and no separate headcount for a New Jersey local employer is published anywhere we can check against.
| Fund | Name | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 35 | 59% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 24 | 41% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 24 police officers. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Wanaque Borough actually appoints.
1 of these members holds a second public job in New Jersey: their reported salary across all public employers exceeds what they are paid here. Shared and part-time appointments are common in local government, and the salary figures below count only the portion earned at Wanaque Borough.
Pensionable salary at Wanaque Borough
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Wanaque Borough reports a pensionable salary above $67,492 and half below, across 59 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $11,828 |
| 25th percentile | $50,102 |
| Median | $67,492 |
| 75th percentile | $96,307 |
| 90th percentile | $153,071 |
The range runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile because the extremes are not informative: the lowest reported figures belong to part-time and partial-year members, whose credited salary is a fraction of a full-time equivalent.
Among the 11 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 18th percentile, below the county's midpoint of $74,681. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 28th percentile.
These figures are pensionable salary reported to the NJ Division of Pensions and Benefits for the four most recent quarters, not total pay and not take-home pay. Snapshot of March 31, 2026. How we compile this.
How long people stay at Wanaque Borough
The median enrolled member at Wanaque Borough has 12.8 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 7.7 and 21.9 years. 36% have passed twenty years, which matters locally because retirement eligibility and the pension formula both turn on service credit.
| Credited service | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 years | 12 | 20% |
| 5 to 10 years | 10 | 17% |
| 10 to 15 years | 10 | 17% |
| 15 to 20 years | 6 | 10% |
| 20 to 25 years | 14 | 24% |
| 25 years or more | 7 | 12% |
Membership tier records which pension rules a member was hired under, so the mix is a rough picture of how recently a workforce turned over. At Wanaque Borough, 24% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 23 | 39% |
| Tier 2 | 1 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 21 | 36% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 14 | 24% |
Other public employers in Wanaque Borough
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Wanaque Borough. Each is its own employer for pension purposes, and only some are civil service jurisdictions — school boards, charter schools and parking authorities are ordinary public employers that were never part of Title 11A. Names link only where the body appears in this directory.
| Employer | Enrolled members |
|---|---|
| WANAQUE BD OF ED | 145 |
| WANAQUE BOROUGH (this page) | 59 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Wanaque Borough
In a municipality that operates under Title 11A, the mayor, administrator or governing body still decides which positions exist and who gets appointed to them. What changes is the route in. Most permanent positions have to be filled from a list of candidates who took and passed an open competitive examination.
That flips the usual job hunt around. For a competitive title you announce yourself by filing for the exam when it is posted, not by dropping a resume at the municipal building. Municipal employers also run the widest mix of titles in this directory: police and fire, public works and sanitation, code enforcement and construction inspection, tax collection, clerical support, recreation, and dispatch.
New Jersey does not require an employer to hire whoever scored highest. When a list is certified, the appointing authority may choose among the top three interested candidates, which is why a rank of two or three on a list is still a serious position and why interviews still decide outcomes.
When there is no eligible list for a title, an employer can fill the job provisionally. Provisional service is real work at real pay, but it builds no permanent rights, and the employer is supposed to request an examination so the position can be filled permanently. Anyone appointed provisionally who wants to keep the job needs to take that examination when it comes.
Civil service employers in Wanaque Borough
Wanaque Borough appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the borough government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
One other Wanaque Borough body is listed separately: Wanaque Library, a public library. It is a distinct employer with its own hiring, so a job there is not a job with the borough, and permanent status earned at one does not carry to the other.
- Wanaque Library, public library
Civil service titles used by New Jersey municipalities
Real classifications that New Jersey municipalities draw on, each linked to its official specification: the definition of the work, the requirements, and any licence the title depends on. A sample of the system rather than a roster or a list of openings.
Civil service coverage across Passaic County
Passaic County holds 20 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 8 municipalities, 7 public libraries, 3 municipal utilities authorities, 1 board of social services, and 1 county government.
8 of the county's 16 municipalities are among them.
Passaic County is a jurisdiction too, though a county's decision does not bind the towns, authorities, libraries or districts inside it.
Also in the directory: Pompton Lakes Borough, Pompton Lakes Library, Pompton Lakes Municipal Utilities Authority, Ringwood Borough, Wanaque Library, West Milford Library, West Milford Municipal Utilities Authority, West Milford Township. See all 20 in Passaic County.
Common questions about Wanaque Borough
Is Wanaque Borough a civil service employer?
Yes. Wanaque Borough appears in the New Jersey Civil Service Commission's listing of local civil service system jurisdictions as of July 2024, which makes it an appointing authority under Title 11A. Permanent appointments to competitive titles there come from eligible lists the Commission certifies, rather than from purely local hiring.
Does civil service status at Wanaque Borough cover the rest of Wanaque Borough?
No. Wanaque Borough has more than one employer in the listing, and each holds its own status, runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists. Seniority and permanent status earned at one do not transfer automatically to another, even inside the same town.
Do you have to live in New Jersey to work here?
Generally yes. The New Jersey First Act requires public employees hired after September 1, 2011 to live in the state, with a grace period for new hires to relocate and a narrow exemption process. Separately, individual examination announcements sometimes carry a local residency preference, which affects the order of the list rather than eligibility.
Is the job specification the same everywhere?
Yes, and that is the point of the classification system. A title has one specification statewide, covering the definition of the work, the education and experience requirements, and any licence the title depends on. That is what makes experience gained at one civil service employer legible to another, even in a different county.
How many Wanaque Borough employees are in a State pension system?
59 active memberships are reported through Wanaque Borough, split across 35 in PERS and 24 in PFRS. This counts pension enrolment rather than payroll, so employees who are not in one of these funds are not included.
What is the median pensionable salary at Wanaque Borough?
$67,492, with the middle half of members between $50,102 and $96,307. These figures are pensionable salary reported to the NJ Division of Pensions and Benefits for the four most recent quarters, not total pay and not take-home pay. It excludes overtime and most supplemental pay, and it is before tax, before the member's own pension contribution and before health premiums.
How does pay at Wanaque Borough compare with the rest of Passaic County?
Its median pensionable salary of $67,492 sits at the 18th percentile among the 11 civil service jurisdictions in Passaic County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $74,681. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Wanaque Borough?
The median enrolled member has 12.8 years of credited service, and 36% have passed twenty years. Credited service drives both retirement eligibility and the pension formula, so a long-tenured workforce usually means fewer open competitive appointments in the near term.